The present invention relates to a novel new way of storing the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) produced by nuclear reactors. The question of what nuclear power plants will do with their waste has always been a big issue.
When storing SNF several goals must be met:                Radioactive materials must be prevented from contaminating the environment;        The SNF rods (which constantly generates heat within them known as decay heat) must be kept cool such that the materials and structures within which the SNF is stored are not damaged, they maintain their structural integrity, and the cladding surrounding the Uranium does not degrade and create a breach in one of the first barriers to fission product release into the environment;        Personnel working in or near the facility must be protected from harmful amounts of radiation;        The nuclear fission chain reaction must be kept from becoming self sustaining (ie criticality accidents must be avoided);        
Solutions to achieve the above-noted goals continue to be desired.
The present invention also relates to the field of gamma ray irradiation. Gamma ray irradiation services are in high demand and have been used for sterilizing medical supplies, killing harmful microorganisms in food stuffs, affecting the material characteristics of plastics, and many other beneficial processes. Low supplies of gamma ray sources have decreased the implementation of and increased costs associated with these beneficial gamma ray irradiation processes. Large new supplies of usable gamma ray sources continue to be desired.
The practice of creating radioactive isotopes in nuclear reactors and then using these isotopes for industrial or medical applications is relatively common in some nuclear reactors. Traditionally a small “target” comprising a non-radioactive material is placed into the nuclear reactor core to absorb neutrons and become radioactive. This “target” material is then removed from the nuclear reactor core and encapsulated in a small container such that the radioactive material does not contaminate the environment but most of its radiation can still escape and be used in industrial or medical applications.
Previous to this invention the process of using a nuclear reactor, that was built primarily for the purposes of creating electricity, to manufacture radioactive sources meant installing foreign “target” material into the reactor itself which meant several engineering analyses to ensure the foreign “target” material didn't affect the safety of the reactor. Furthermore the “targets” absorb valuable neutrons that would otherwise have been able to cause fissions in the nuclear fuel that would have created more thermal energy that could have been turned into electricity. The intrusive nature of the “targets” often affected the entire operation of the nuclear power plant and the process was typically deemed “not worth the effort” by owners of the nuclear power plants and stakeholders. Efforts have also occurred in the past to chemically separate gamma emitting radioisotopes from SNF for use in gamma sources however such processes are expensive and complicated.